Independence Day

I’m just a good ole boy. I was born, and raised, in the South. I own guns. I drive a pickup truck. I don’t like the government telling me what to do in my everyday life. I’m also a firm believer in the Constitution of the United States of America, and all the beauty that document outlines for a government “for the people”. I believe I live in the greatest country on the face of the planet. I also think that we can do better.

Where has all the common sense gone? Our political system is broken. Not because our government has failed us. We have failed our government. We’ve stopped using our common sense. We’ve allowed politicians to run amok on party platforms, and let them hide behind party loyalty. We are at the pinnacle of “”us versus them” of party politics. We need leaders that will use their heads for something other than doorstops to hold open the party door. We elect people to solve problems, not to get re-elected next time the polls are open. Problem solving requires compromise. It needs to involve common sense answers to real problems.

One problem this country has is gun violence. Not the “mass shootings” that you see highlighted on television. The real gun violence isn’t what’s being reported. It’s much simpler than we think. The statistics for 2021 tell us that, of 48,830 gun related deaths in the U.S., over half of those were suicides. That’s 26,328 people dead. The total number of suicides, in 2021, were 48,183 people dead. That means that suicide is killing people marginally less than guns. The other big number of gun deaths-murder-stands at 20,958 people dead. That is eight out of ten murders in the U.S., for a total of 26,031 people dead.

Mass shootings are defined as incidents where three, or more, people are killed. In 2021 there were 690 deaths from mass shootings. I did the math. Out of a total of 48,830 number of gun deaths, mass shootings were a tad over 1.4%. Suicides were at 54%. What gets the publicity? Mass shootings. Why? It sells. It gets headlines. It fires up the left, who desire more gun control, as well as the right, who argue the 2^nd Amendment. We argue semantics while people are literally killing themselves. What can we do to solve this problem?

Guns can be manufactured with fingerprint identification locks. It’s a smart technology that allows only the gun owner to use the gun. There’s no end to the types of safeties we could put on firearms with the advances in technology that we’ve seen in the past five years. If we can make machines that think, we can figure out how to make a safer gun. Mandating manufacturing guns with individual safeties is not unconstitutional. We have a right to free speech, yet we have libel and slander laws that keep us in check. We have the right to privacy and freedom from illegal search and seizure, but we still give law enforcement loopholes to circumvent those because they need to be able to do their job. It’s common sense.

Can we please stop arguing over the petty, and start finding solutions to the important stuff? I ask my representatives in the House and Senate : find real solutions to the problems you see killing your constituents and stop worrying about the next election. I say to my fellow citizens: stop electing people who don’t find ways to solve the real problems.

As we celebrate our beautiful country’s birthday, may we all be thankful for our freedom. I love this country. May those we elect love it enough to do what is right. God bless y’all.

Rant over.